While water is essential to human life, it’s important that it tastes good too. So to drink the best quality water, we need to know what minerals are in it. While having mineral content in water is good, certain minerals often found in London water can affect taste and quality, but more importantly, they can also impact our health. In this article, we’ll explore some of the different minerals commonly found in drinking water and their health benefits.

The most common minerals in water

Thames Water covers the mains water supply for central and most of greater London, but tap water quality can vary significantly, depending on where it comes from and how it’s treated. The presence of minerals in the water can benefit our health, but they can also have negative effects. So let’s look at some of the minerals in our drinking water and what they mean for our health.

Calcium

Calcium is one of the most common minerals in water. It’s an essential nutrient that’s critical to healthy growth, bone, and teeth development, muscle function, and nerve transmission. Calcium also helps to regulate blood pressure and is important for heart health. While some people may get enough calcium from their diet, others can benefit from drinking calcium-rich water.

Magnesium

Magnesium is another common mineral in drinking water. Like calcium, it plays an important role in many bodily functions, including muscle and nerve function and heart health. Magnesium may also help to lower blood pressure. So drinking magnesium-rich water can be an effective way to supplement this important mineral.

Sodium

Sodium, which we associate with salt, is a mineral often linked with negative health effects, such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. But we need sodium for normal muscle and nerve functions and to help keep our body’s fluids balanced. So sodium in water is generally a good thing. But water with sodium levels that are too high can lead to dehydration and other health issues, so monitoring is needed. 

Fluoride

Fluoride is naturally present in most water supplies and is safe to drink. But while Thames Water doesn’t need to supplement these levels, other water suppliers may need to artificially add fluoride if their levels aren't high enough (the legal limit is 1.5 milligrammes fluoride per litre). However, fluoride, whether natural or artificially added, prevents tooth decay and strengthens tooth enamel.

Taste the right amount of good minerals in our water

Whether you love or hate the taste of London tap water, it’s totally safe to drink. But if you really don't like it, there is a tasty alternative. Thirsty Work has a range of bottled water coolers that use naturally-filtered, great-tasting water from our own spring in Shropshire. It still has minerals, but just the right amount – you can check the mineral content yourself. But if bottled water isn’t for you, our mains-fed water coolers use Pura advanced water filtration to give you the same pure taste, even though the water comes from your mains supply. 

For more information on our Thirsty Work water coolers and our rapid same or next-day deliveries across London and the southeast direct from our London depot, contact us today. Call the team on 02080 498 501 or email us at hello@thirstywork.com, and you can start your free, no-risk 10-day, free trial to taste the difference.